Legally, Florida lawmakers must accomplish just one task during the annual two-month legislative session, which begins Tuesday in Tallahassee. They must pass a state budget.
But given the pent-up issues facing Florida after last year's do-little,...

Is Hillary Rodham Clinton a McDonald's Big Mac or a Chipotle burrito bowl? A can of Bud or a bottle of Blue Moon? JCPenney or J. Crew?”
That was the opening question of a front-page Washington Post story on Clinton's effort to figure out her...

'Is Hillary Rodham Clinton a McDonald's Big Mac or a Chipotle burrito bowl? A can of Bud or a bottle of Blue Moon? JC Penney or J. Crew?"
That was the opening question of a front page Washington Post story on Clinton's effort to figure out her "brand."...

The Florida governor's race last year saw the candidates sidestep the old, regulated system of campaign finance, as Gov. Rick Scott and Democratic challenger Charlie Crist combined to raise $49 million through huge donations from about 2,100 contributors....

In a parking garage outside his Fort Lauderdale office, Florida's only legal pot smoker lit up a fat joint. For more than 30 years, Irvin Rosenfeld has gotten marijuana from the federal government as part of an experimental program. He just learned a medical marijuana initiative was approved to appear on the November ballot.
"We're in for a tough battle," said Rosenfeld, a stockbroker with a rare bone-tumor disease. Polls showed overwhelming support for medical marijuana at the time, but Rosenfeld...

"We should keep the judiciary as far apart from politics as heaven is from hell."
That's Burton Young speaking. No Floridian talks with more authority on the subject.
But, as he and others see it, politics is once again threatening to pervert justice in Florida. Is there a need to amend the Constitution?
"God, yes," says Young. Politicized courts "threaten our democracy."
Young recalls when it was necessary to hire co-counsel who belonged to the assigned judge's political party. It can happen...

Buying more Big Sugar land is at the top of Everglades advocates' 2015 to-do list, with taxpayers potentially facing a price tag that could hit $350 million.
The Everglades Coalition is calling for the state to buy another 46,800 acres of U.S. Sugar Corp. land. The sugar cane fields and other property south of Lake Okeechobee would be used to get more water flowing south to the Everglades, instead of draining that water out to sea for South Florida flood control.
"The acquisition of the land is a...

TALLAHASSEE — Another statewide election disaster has presented another opportunity to study whether Florida Democratic Party headquarters will collapse into a black hole. A year ago, it seemed like they were on a heater: a gubernatorial candidate with strong name identification, fundraising bona fides, larger numbers in the Legislature and medical marijuana on the ballot.
In the aftermath of last month's defeats, Florida's minority party has come up with a new gimmick: the Leadership Expansion...

Controlling kids' lunches
In his Thursday letter to the editor, David Rauschenberger admittedly used sarcasm and hypotheticals to suggest that progressives are bent on federally controlling the homemade lunches that kids bring to school. The letter also suggests that the administration is headed toward controlling every aspect of education of your children. These assertions are absurd.
Regarding education, the progressives desire only to keep the teaching of science in public schools separate from...

In the long, and often weird, history of political debates, this may have been a first: A gubernatorial debate stalled for six minutes because of a fight over whether one candidate could bring a fan.
No, not the cheering kind of fan -- although both sides had plenty in the audience -- but the blowing type. To be precise, a roughly 1-foot-in-diameter, dark plastic portable fan tucked under the lectern used by Charlie Crist, Florida's former Republican governor who is seeking a repeat term as a Democrat....